Thursday, February 23, 2017

You Get Rights, I Lose Rights: Commentary on the Zero-Sum Human Rights Game of White "Pro-Life" Christians Supporting Trump



In the tweet above, Laurence Tribe is responding to White House media man Sean Spicer:




Fred Clark on how the Strongman that "pro-life" white Christians claim God has anointed to reChristianize the U.S. is the logical outcome of the white evangelical narrative of cultural decline as minority groups long denied rights gain their rights:

Donald Trump is the end-product (so far) of the white evangelical narrative of decline — the product of generations of jeremiads bemoaning every small step of greater justice and greater equality for women, people of color, and religious and sexual minorities. That narrative has always condemned and rejected "Selma, Seneca Falls, and Stonewal" as — in Howe’s words — "American cultural decline" that is 'moving the country farther from resembling [a] Christian society.' . . . 
Once you embrace that narrative of decline, then the white male backlash of the Trump administration is your logical conclusion.

Adele Stan on how Milo Yiannopoulos exposes the moral vacuity of the American conservative movement, with its ongoing determination to remove rights from vulnerable minority groups:

With its more than 50-year quest to keep restaurants racially segregated, women as second-class citizens, LGBT people in the closet, and the planet a dumping ground for the waste of industrialists, the conservative movement must own Milo Yiannopoulos. His ginning of hatred against trans people, black people, Muslims, Jews and women stems from the license granted him by the underpinnings of the conservative movement. He is its creation, its values encapsulated in one especially vile human being.

Chauncey DeVega on how the media's infatuation with the silly narrative of "white working-class anxiety" as the driver of support for Trump disguises what is really driving his supporters:

"The news media’s slavish devotion to its narrative of white working-class anxiety is irresponsible. It’s a distraction from the way Trump’s election has reinvigorated and inspired white supremacists and other members of the American far right. The 'white working class anxiety' narrative also serves to normalize the authoritarian leanings of Trump voters and other toxic values. This false narrative also makes it more difficult for the American people to put current events in the proper context. 
Since Donald Trump’s election in November, the United States has seen a record spike in hate crimes targeting Muslims, people of color and other marginalized communities. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported that white supremacist websites and have seen a huge increase in traffic because of Trump’s campaign and election. There has been an wave of anti-Semitism since Donald Trump’s election: Jewish temples and community centers have received bomb threats, and Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized. These events are wholly predictable given the fact that Trump has been embraced by white supremacist organizations and neo-Nazis — and that he has filled senior positions with white-nationalist sympathizers like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Michael Anton and Sebastian Gorka."

Rob Boston on the eye-opening revelation of the Trump era about what the religious right really stands for and wants:

IF WE LEARNED nothing else from the 2016 election cycle, we certainly learned this: the religious right is morally bankrupt—utterly and profoundly so. . . .  
[Richard] Land, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell Jr., and others have adopted a kind of post-Christ Christianity; it's a shell of that faith without its founder. And Trump is the perfect emissary for them. He’s everything the gospels say Jesus was not—crass, boorish, narcissistic, and full of anger.
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